"Ah!" I pounced up from my bed, the fever I had was gone and Priscilla had also left my room. My head throbbed, and I felt a little lightheaded, though with some time it disappeared.
"Lady Ophelia? Are you up?" Priscilla's voice was outside the door, knocking as she spoke. The memories I had yesterday was a big haze within my mind, I remember overworking myself from training, it could've been because he had kept pushing me that I felt complied to try harder.
I took Priscilla's advice to take a break for the rest of the week, and I barely did anything for the whole day. I didn't do any meditation training, or refining my spells, or practicing the basic swordsmanship he told me to do.
I realised with all the time I had, I felt bored, I felt unproductive, and the entire day felt like a waste. I had nothing to do, I was so focused on training that just leisurely talking with others was rarely ever done. Even when I did, I didn't really talk about anything, it was just short small talk about training.
Everything I did was about training, whether I did training to get to that eventual goal or because I had to. I couldn't contact Claudia because she was for the most part doing her own training, and when we did train together, Lione hushed us whenever we tried to talk.
It was only until now that I had realised that Claudia was completely different when training, usually she was always cheerful and didn't really care about others. But, her focus was incomprehensible.
Even at her side, her eyes were void of anything, like she used her selective hearing to only listen to the quiet whispers of dust falling to the ground. I didn't know someone could become so engrossed into something. How was she able to do it? To focus so intently and be absorbed entirely into training?
During my thought, I was slightly confused. Why would I need to take a week off for something as measly as a fever? It didn't make sense, was it perhaps common mannerisms to let me take the week off?
After working so hard? Was it precaution to not let it happen again, to let me rethink about the situation so that I wouldn't run into the same problem later on? Maybe I was overthinking it, Priscilla was a maid after all.
Yeah, it was fine. There was no reason to overthink it, right? All I had to look forward to was training.
The week was met up with training throughout like usual, nothing really happened. And I was looking forward to training with my swordsmanship instructor the next two days. I was motivated, after losing out on some progress, I had to get it back up. But, this time I'd think of my health, that was the important part.
"Wow, would you look at that. You look pretty good Ophelia!" He praised, patting me on the back.
"Thanks..?" I was confused, why was he treating me like I was his child? It didn't make any sense, but I shrugged it off. He possibly turned a new leaf, which was for the better.
"Alright, nothing better than a few new techniques like always right!" His face was glinting, his skin was shining even.
"Some new techniques? Did something good happen?" I asked, this was the first time he was going to teach me something, that was actually swordsmanship. I was perplexed, but I was also ecstatic to really care.
"Hm? Of course! Something amazing happens every day!" He guffawed, his hands placed at his waist like he was an old man.
"Hm okay.. Let's go then!" I went along with it, jumping up and down, this didn't seem so bad. This was so much better than before.
"You said it Ophelia! I'll first be teaching you an amazing technique." He materialised a white board, drawing on it as he explained further. "A technique that allows you to slash multiple times within a second! It's a great technique for both offense and defence, and it's extremely fast when done correctly."
He placed distance between us, and within a few seconds, I could see more than 3.. 4 or was it 5 slashes? I couldn't tell, it was too fast for me to comprehend. On the ground however, I noticed a circular indent, with 6 outward lines stretching a few metres ahead of where he stood.
"I'll slow it down this time to let you see my movements more easily." He took the same stance, and this time, his movements albeit slow, were understandable.
I was finally going to learn a sword technique from him.
"Did you see it clearly?"
"Yes, that was amazing. Even though you slowed it down, I don't know if I can replicate that."
"Don't worry, don't worry! Take your time, we have many weeks and months to perfect it! There's no rush, just take your time!" He gave a thumbs up. "Remember to use every part of your body, even if not performed well, this not only will build a good habit, but it'll do you good later.
He was a much better teacher than before, I was quite surprised. I don't remember him ever being this reassuring, or ever taking the time to fully teach me. He was like a completely different person!
Before, he always used to... What did he do before? I don't remember. What was he like before? I couldn't remember either. He was definitely.. Definitely.. What was his name? He was.. Nice? Caring? Was he always like this?
He was never a douche, I don't think. And he was always helping me through.. What did he help me with? What were we doing in those lessons? The memories I had felt off, we learnt techniques, and we laughed together. But, they felt.. Off.
Why? He was always a good teacher, I just never saw it. He was always supportive and never put me down.
He was a good teacher.